Dylan Bowker, MMATorch Contributor

With 3 decades of combat sports experience, few can claim to a broader historical perspective than Ken Shamrock. Our very own Dylan Bowker spoke to Shamrock, getting fresh insight on the origins of what we now call MMA.

“The World’s Most Dangerous Man” provided a lot of great historical context and high-level insights on present day MMA. Ken Shamrock is an individual who competed at the inaugural UFC event, is the first lineal Heavyweight champion in the promotion’s history (the UFC superfight title), and who did huge business with nearly every reputable organization in mixed-martial arts history.

Ken is one of the progenitors of no holds barred and certainly didn’t hold anything back in our conversation.

When I got to talk with Ken we spoke about the pros and cons of regulation in modern MMA, Ken’s history with Minoru Suzuki being a microcosm for the overlap between Pro Wrestling and MMA, as well as believing that Kazushi Sakuraba loaded his gloves with sand before fighting Shamrock in Pride (ironically at an event with the tagline “Fully Loaded”).

I also got in-depth with Ken about transitioning from his pro wrestling work in UWF to competing in shoot organization/ influential MMA promotion Pancrase. Ken also detailed the tryout processes for prospective Lion’s Den trainees, his feud with Royce Gracie, and so much more!